11th International Symposium on Fire Safety Science

The International Association for Fire Safety Science (IAFSS) is proudly announcing that the 11th International Symposium on Fire Safety Science will be held on February 10 – 14, 2014 at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand.

The Symposium is the premier fire safety science meeting in the world and has been organized triennially since 1985 by the IAFSS. The program will have parallel sessions for the presentation of fully peer-reviewed papers over the five days of the Symposium, including invited lectures from the world’s top fire science researchers. Symposium activities will begin on Sunday, February 9 with several workshops in the afternoon and a Welcome Reception in the evening. The Symposium will also have poster sessions which will provide an excellent opportunity to interact individually with researchers about their most recent work. Students are encouraged to participate and awards will be made for the best student posters. In addition to the technical sessions, numerous social activities are planned to cater for informal meetings with colleagues and friends. There will be a rich array of entertainments and tours in the companion program and there is much to see in the Canterbury region and beyond.

Host Venue

The University of Canterbury (UC) is located in Christchurch, the gateway to New Zealand’s amazing South Island. Nestled between the Pacific Ocean to the east and the Southern Alps to the west; the University campus is close to many tourist attractions in the Canterbury region and the entire South Island.

The University comprises five Colleges, including Arts, Business and Economics, Education, Engineering, and Science, and a School of Law. The Symposium will be held in the lecture theatres centrally located on the campus of the University. The University is just 10 minutes from the Christchurch international airport providing many direct flights to New Zealand and international destinations.

The University of Canterbury (UC) was established in 1873 by the scholars of Oxford and Cambridge universities and is New Zealand’s second oldest university. UC has a strong international reputation for its high-quality degrees, excellent teaching staff and cutting-edge research. UC is a government-funded, research-led comprehensive university. Qualifications offered include Bachelors with Honors, Master’s and Doctoral degrees, as well as Certificates and Diplomas at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. UC has approximately 12,000 students. The University is home to one of the largest fire engineering program in the southern hemisphere. The Fire Engineering Group is a renowned group in the world. The College of Engineering is also well known for other engineering disciplines and hosts seven departments and nine research centers.

Registration and Accommodation

Symposium registration and hotel booking for participants and their companions will be available via links from the IAFSS website at www.iafss.org in early 2013. The registration will include online access to full papers and posters.

Research of Interest

You are invited to submit a contribution that advances scientific understanding and/or presents new ideas in the entire spectrum of fire safety science. The topic areas include:

Full papers and poster abstracts will be accepted on the basis of their quality and originality in the science of fire safety and its applications. Routine applications of established knowledge and case studies with no generalized results are not appropriate for the Symposium. Refer to prior Symposium proceedings for further information on the scope of contributed papers (http://www.iafss.org/publications).

All accepted and presented papers will be included in the Symposium Proceeding, Fire Safety Science, and will be electronically published by IAFSS (http://www.iafss.org/publications). All papers will have DOI’s assigned and will be part of the CrossRef system, including citation indexing. This assures the best possible dissemination of the contributions and assures that citations of the papers will be fully recognized.

Requirements

Papers: Must be original work. The same paper must not have been submitted to another forum.

Page Limit: Full paper: 14 pages, Poster abstract: 1 page

Style: All papers must be in English. Detailed information for authors on style, including paper length, format, etc, and a paper template are available in the Call for Papers and Paper Template webpage. The Symposium offers an English mentoring program. However, the mentoring service will be provided on the basis of technical merit of the paper and the reviewers’ recommendation. Poorly written papers will not be considered.

Oral Presentation: Oral presentation of the paper at the Symposium must be made by an author.

Review Process

Submitted full papers will receive at least two independent peer reviews. Reviewers will be appointed by members of the Program Committee. Final acceptance or rejection of a manuscript will be made by the 11th Symposium Program Committee.

Authors will be notified of the Program Committee’s decision by August 15, 2013. Notification will include reviewers’ comments, detailed style guidelines for the final version of the paper for publication, and the deadline for delivering a final version in which all reviewers’ comments have been addressed (September 30, 2013). The Proceedings will include all accepted papers that are presented by an author at the Symposium provided that reviewer comments are addressed and the final versions are approved by the Program Committee Chairs (October 15, 2013), and the final photo-ready paper is submitted to the Proceedings Editors by 30 November 2013.

Submitting Your Full Paper

Manuscripts should be submitted electronically through the Paper Submission web page located on the IAFSS website.

The submission deadline for papers is May 15, 2013. Papers submitted after May 30, 2013, will not be considered. Papers submitted between May 15 and 30 will be reviewed; however, timely submissions will be given preference in determining acceptance.

Submitting Your Poster Abstract

A Call for Posters is available, which provides details on poster abstract requirements. Posters may describe work in progress, or completed projects. To assure the inclusion of recent research, the submission deadline for poster abstracts is 31 October 2013. Poster abstracts will be reviewed by the 11th Symposium Program Committee.